


The Butterfly Exhibit

by mcschnuggles



Series: Escape [4]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, CGRE - Caregiver/Age Regressor, Caregiver!Joey, Fluff, Gen, Regressing!Seto, only fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 20:30:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21021821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcschnuggles/pseuds/mcschnuggles
Summary: Joey gets a text from Seto and expects the worst. For once, it's not an emergency.





	The Butterfly Exhibit

**Author's Note:**

> This is a commissioned work! Thanks again, friend, for the commission, I hope you like it :)

_ Come over._

_ I have something I wanna show you._

_ Small._

When Joey receives these three texts in rapid succession, he’s expecting a disaster. It’s when Seto sends a fourth text, one giving him the address of the local museum—the one that’s closed for the next few months for renovations—that Joey pauses.

After all, Seto isn’t the kind of kid to break down and regress in public. But he also isn’t the type to regress in public _at all_, so…

Joey decides to play it on the safe side and just get there as fast as he can.

“Mr. Wheeler,” one of the security guards greets him. “Mr. Kaiba is inside.”

There are two of them flanking the door to the area under renovations. The sign to the left of them says “Brand New! Butterfly Exhibit! Admission $1 for children, $3 for adults.”

Joey offers an awkward wave. He doesn’t even bother flashing his guest pass anymore; there’s no need. He’s still not used to being recognized by the security, but he supposes it was inevitable, no matter how hard Kaiba tried to prevent it.

He’s sure to close the door tightly behind him. “Kaiba?”

The butterfly exhibit is a large circular room, with the butterfly habitat in the center.

“Kaiba Corp is considering a donation to this museum.” Kaiba explains. “And I’d like to see where my money’s going. You’re here as a second opinion.”

“_Right_.” Joey sits beside him, leaning in so no man or security camera or whatever new thing Kaiba is paranoid over can overhear. “Do you wanna go see the butterflies, Seto?”

Seto goes pink up to his ears, and with a slight look of resignation, he nods and stands. “There are no cameras in the habitat,” he murmurs, so quietly that Joey almost doesn’t hear him.

Joey opens the door to the habitat, and a hundred blue butterflies flutter up from their resting spaces. Seto gasps softly beside him. His eyes are bright and shining, like a kid meeting Santa Claus for the first time.

Joey’s sure the butterflies are nice and all, but he can’t take his eyes off of Seto’s grin. It’s subtle, a barely-there upturn of his lips. The real evidence is in his eyes, which seem to give off so much more light when he’s happy.

It’s so rare that Seto smiles anyway, so moments like this make him feel that he’s actually doing this caregiving thing right.

“If you stand really still,” Seto says in hushed excitement, “do you think they’ll come say hi?”

“I’m sure they will.”

“What kind of butterflies are those?” Seto asks. His gaze lingers on a small cluster of orange butterflies, the patterns on their wings lined in thick black lines.

Now, Joey doesn’t know the first thing about butterflies. But he happens to know a lot about Seto, one of the most important things being that Seto doesn’t need a right answer. He just needs an immediate one. He probably won’t even remember what Joey says, and even if he does, Joey’s never been called out on his wrong answers before.

No, for Seto, the fact that someone’s there to answer his questions is enough.

“Dragon butterflies.” Joey answers. “They’re like, first cousins to dragonflies, but they get mad if you point that out.”

From the look in Seto’s eyes, he doesn’t believe it one bit. But he’s still smiling, and he nods, so Joey counts it as a victory.

Joey makes his movements slow and deliberate, reaching over and gently taking Seto’s hand. And as usual, Seto doesn’t react. It’s hard for him to react to things, Joey’s realized, no matter if they’re positive or negative, so usually when Joey is giving him positive attention, he can’t even look Joey in the eye. But that’s okay. He doesn’t have to. The little squeeze he gives in return is enough for Joey to know he’s doing his job right.

Now used to their presence, the butterflies are beginning to settle once more. Joey almost doesn’t believe it when one swoops in and lands directly on Seto’s nose. Honestly, he’d expected to either have to convince Seto to leave or wait the entire night out for a butterfly to drop in.

And Seto _laughs_. Like an actual, genuine, cute little giggle. It barely lasts a second, and Seto’s face turns bright red afterward.

The butterfly almost immediately takes off, going back to join its friends up above, but Seto doesn’t mind at all. Good God, he’s practically _beaming_, even despite the obvious color in his face. It would be a ghost of a smile for most people, a miniscule gap between his lips revealing his teeth, but for Seto that’s gigantic.

“What was that?” he asks.

“Smurfette butterfly.” Joey answers. “They’re called that because they’re blue.” He affectionately squeezes Seto’s hand. “I also heard that they only drop by for really sweet kids.”

“We can come back?” Seto asks. His voice is very soft.

“Of course.” For the most part, the butterflies have settled back onto their tree branches and leaves, their wings opening and closing idly.

Yeah, he wouldn’t mind coming back.

Not at all.

**Author's Note:**

> mcschnuggles.tumblr.com


End file.
